Furious Farah Khan opens up on the Shirish Kunder plagiarism row

Jun 29, 2016, 08:32 IST
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Shaheen Parkar

Farah Khan has been angry and upset ever since her hubby Shirish Kunder was accused of stealing the plot of 'Kriti', from Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane's 'BOB'. Farah answers few questions for better clarity

Farah Khan has been angry and upset ever since her hubby Shirish Kunder was accused of stealing the plot of his recently-released short film, 'Kriti', from Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane's 'BOB'.

Yesterday, Shirish sent a legal notice to the makers of 'BOB' for making false and defamatory allegations against him. The writer-director has demanded that Neupane tender a written apology and refrain from making any oral or written comments about the film. Kriti, which was launched on June 22 by Kangana Ranaut, received a million hits in a day. The 18-minute thriller stars Manoj Bajpayee, Radhika Apte and Neha Sharma.

Farah says the allegations are uncalled for. "How can anyone say that Shirish copied another film?" she asks angrily. hitlist asked her a few questions for better clarity:

Q. Shirish has made a film after long, but it landed in controversy.A. It's really sad. It is after a while that he made a film and people have been liking it. By now, it has got almost three million hits. He decided to seek legal recourse and does not want to say anything more about it. Now, he wants the film to do the talking.

Q. When did Shirish start writing for 'Kriti'?A. He was working on the idea when I was shooting for 'Happy New Year' (2014). Writing is a long process. He has so many scripts with him. He would keep bouncing off his ideas with Vishal Dadlani (music composer) and me. So, he has been working on the script for the last three years.

Q. Alleged similarities between the plot and characterisations in both films have been drawn.A. 'Kriti' is a pschyo thriller, and there is almost always a psychiatrist in films of this genre, so you can't say it was copied from another film.

Q. So, was Kriti's script leaked?A. A script goes to a lot of people involved in the project — from the production house, casting agents, costume designer and actors. How is it not possible that someone stole our idea? Planning was going on for a year. The timelines do not match; their film was uploaded in May; 'Kriti' was shot in February.

Q. Do you think BOB's makers are seeking mileage?A. Nobody knew about their film until recently, but there is a limit to everything. Every time a film releases, someone gets up and alleges plagiarism. Any Tom, Dick and Harry cannot just cry foul and take away someone's hard work.

Q. What do you plan to do now?A. I am waiting for this to blow over and for Kriti to get more hits. Also, my children's schools are now closed and we will head for a vacation.

Timeline

'Kriti'Shirish Kunder began writing the short film in 2014 The concept was discussed with the cast and crew a year ago. They were given the script and their dates were locked six months prior to the shoot in February this year. The June 22 launch was planned three months in advance.

'BOB'Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane's project was ready in October 2015. It was uploaded on Vimeo as a private video to be shared with close friends. It was released on May 12 this year.